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Give me your tired, your poor … and everyone else

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is stepping out on a very flimsy metaphorical branch, which threatens to snap under his weight. That limb is immigration reform.

But I am glad he is stepping on it, and I hope the limb doesn’t break.

I will admit from the outset that I have had, for a long time now, a different opinion about immigration than most of the rest of my party.

Despite being to the right of most Republicans on issues like the size and scope of government and reforming entitlements, my opinion on immigration has — more than once — gotten me labeled a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

That disagreeing on this issue is viewed as some kind of ideological apostasy has always been disappointing to me — because my position is not only better for the electoral prospects of the party but also the more conservative option as it champions free choice, free association and opposes a giant government program to deal with the issue.

The main arguments for limiting immigration into the country break down into three basic categories: economic protectionism, nativism and security.

Those concerned with protecting American workers fail to understand market economics. As population grows, so too does the economy. New hordes of foreigners pouring into the United States do not arrive and then fight with natives over the same-sized economic pie that they started with. They expand the pie.

Immigrants buy watches. They go to the movies. They eat at restaurants. They buy clothes. They do all the things that non-immigrants do, providing a brand new and expanding market for citizens to sell to.

This grows the economy, which in turn expands the job market, that is itself satisfied by the new people who are participating in the economy. If the capitalistic synergy was any more beautifully coordinated I would burst into tears.

Conservatives love to ridicule Europe for its supposedly socialist-induced anemic growth in the past few decades, but the real failure is lack of population growth.

Europeans have a birth rate that is below replacement level in most countries and do not fill the gap in growth with immigration. Without more people to expand both market demand and supply, economic growth stalls. This isn’t rocket science. Healthy capitalistic societies need growth, and the key to that is more people.

The nativist argument is real but too absurd to spend any real time addressing. “They don’t look like me or sound like me or speak my language” is not a reason to deny someone the God-given right to self-determination and to seek freedom and prosperity.

Security concerns are probably the most justifiable and least sinister argument currently used to fight against increased immigration. Yet, even still, it falls short.

I recently heard a conservative pundit point out that the 9/11 hijackers were essentially illegal immigrants and that restricting immigration was the only way to protect ourselves.

Yet, those men did get into the country, and they did hijack planes, and they did crash them into the World Trade Center buildings and Pentagon.

A person who wants to do America harm will find a way in here. Don’t think they can sneak over the 5,000-mile Canadian border? Pay the right people off?

I want immigrants to come here, and I want them to do it legally. My solution is to make the legal immigration process more open, faster and simpler.

If you want to be a citizen in this country, and you aren’t a criminal, I want you here. Our current system, with its decades-long legal entanglements to become a citizen, encourages illegal immigration.

At the same time, I understand the concerns of those who oppose the Rubio plan. Rewarding those who have broken the law is in no one’s best interest, and we should guard against it.

But let us keep in mind that the law being broken is not being done out of malice or intent to do wrong. It is not a violent crime. It should be viewed as a misdemeanor, and the vitriol with which we currently treat those who break that law should stop, replaced by something more appropriate to the less serious nature of the offense.

As we chart what to do about the people who are here now, let us be realistic, let us make certain that those who have broken the law are dealt with humanely and with the appropriate level of punishment.

And let us start to understand that people wanting to come to this country is a good thing, both for them and for us.

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About Matthew Gagnon

Matthew Gagnon, of Yarmouth, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. Prior to Maine Heritage, he served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C. Originally from Hampden, he has been involved with Maine politics for more than a decade.
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Matthew Gagnon

Matthew Gagnon, of Yarmouth, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. Prior to Maine Heritage, he served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C. Originally from Hampden, he has been involved with Maine politics for more than a decade.